I f you visit travel websites looking for reviews of the Logan Inn in New Hope, Bucks County, you'll find many positive comments. One couple recently raved about the calamari. Others speak highly of its location on Ferry Street, overlooking the beautiful, busy New Hope Main Street. The staff, many assure, is top-notch and the inn's historic origins imbue a look and feel unattainable by modern hotel chains. Yet, scattered throughout these customer reviews, you'll also find stories of a more unusual variety. Strange things happen at the Logan Inn, some guests say. Other-wordly things. Many lodgers swear, in fact, that the guest register contains not just the living, but also the dead.

There has been a tavern or lodging house at the corner of Ferry and Main Street since pre-Revolutionary War days. Although originally established in 1727, land records indicate much of the Logan Inn's current structure dates to 1880. It was originally called the Ferry Tavern because of its function as the eastern shore terminus of the ferry hauling passengers between the Pennsylvania and New Jersey shores of the Delaware River. Surrounded by George Washington's troops in the late 1770s, it was a safe spot for townspeople and travelers to gather. It was not uncommon, in fact, for Washington's men to spend evenings at the Ferry Tavern, toasting the fall of King George with a mug of wassail.

A new proprietor, Abraham D. Meyers, acquired the business in 1829. He renamed it the Logan House - some say in honor of then Secretary of State James Logan, others say to honor a local indian chief who look Logan's name. The true motivation, however, has been lost to history. In 1863, ownership passed to Michael A. Van Hart, who handed it down to his heirs.

Fast forward to 1969 when friends and business partners Arthur Sanders and Carl F. Lutz (also a former mayor of New Hope) purchased the property, firmly establishing the current name, Logan Inn. Almost immediately the inn became something of a home base for Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey, a well-known Bucks County author and paranormal researcher. Her well-patronized New Hope ghost tours began and ended at the Logan Inn, and her highly successful 1972 book Ghosts in the Valley devotes a chapter to it. By the early 1980s, events at the inn became regular Halloween features in local newspapers.

In October 1980, Lutz told a Doylestown Intelligencer reporter that "people come in here and ask how soon the ghost will appear." He described strange activity like waitresses being called by name when there was no one around, and seeing shadow figures pass by the windows. Items appeared and disappeared, he said, while cabinets seemed to lock and unlock at will. The scent of lavender - Carl's mother Emily's favorite scent - filled the air, employees and guests reported. (These same stories are still repeated today.)

Within a few years, several distinct specters were identified as permanent residents of the inn. One is purportedly a little girl from the 1800s who died when she tumbled into the canal running behind what is today the parking lot. Also frequently seen is a Revolutionary War soldier, with or without his head, depending on the witness.

Room #6 is the most active area, according to guests. It is the room in which Carl Lutz's mother Emily spent the last years of her life. Those who stay there hear strange noises, have blankets tugged while they sleep, feel the bed shake as if jostled by invisible hands, and find items moved upon returning to the empty room.

Lutz and Sanders gave up the Logan Inn in 1988. Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey died in 1990. For some time after these events, little was reported in the way of supernatural activity. Several years later - with the ghost tours back in full swing under the new ownership of Adele Gamble - activity resumed. Newspapers once again began reporting unusual events at the inn.

In June 2015, the Login Inn was purchased by Frank and Jeanne Cretella. Although their new focus seems to be fine food and the kind of spirits found behind the bar, manager Maggie Smith assures Hauntingly PENNSYLVANIA™ it is still a wonderful spot where the living and dead intersect in a friendly, non-threatening way.

"Besides the many, many people who pick up on it as soon as they walk into the building," she says, "there have been numerous investigations by reputable groups who always record activity."

Hauntingly PENNSYLVANIA™ can't help but wonder if Carl Lutz, Arthur Sanders and Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey still meet there to talk about old times.They were, after all, the trio most responsible for cultivating the Logan Inn's spirit-friendly reputation. And, if Dorothy Parker - a regular in the 1940s - still drops by on occasion, we want a standing reservation for the room (or bar stool) she most prefers. 💀

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